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LIVE UPDATES: One man has died and there are grave fears for many more as dozens of houses are lost and over 100 blazes continue to burn, 36 of them out of control, across NSW. Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons has fought back tears while describing the tireless work of his firefighters, many of whom have lost their own homes while defending the lives of strangers. Police confirmed the first fatality of the disaster this morning. A 63-year-old man died in the NSW Central Coast yesterday after he collapsed while defending his Lake Munmorah home. Two volunteer firefighters are being treated for injuries in hospital, NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell said.Fire Services Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons fought back tears describing the tireless work of his firefighters, many of whom have lost their own homes defending the lives of strangers.

"We have the best firefighters in the world. There's no doubt about it," he said.

Bushes fault!!
Be careful Sonna and I hope none of your friends or family are affected.

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyesAnd clever in their own sight! Isaiah 5:20-21 NASB

We are in suburban Sydney, we're fine. Two of my friends are in the fire zone, and they advise that the fires are moving away from them.

We will get this under control eventually. Lower temperatures and cooler weather fronts are moving in, which should help. We are hoping for rain...but the last thing we need is a lightning strike to start another one. Unlike a certain imbecile Mayor in a city I wont name, we Aussies have activated THE PLAN, we all know our jobs, we all know what to do and how to do it. We prepare for every contingency, and that planning is working fine.

SYDNEY, Jan 13, 2013 (AFP) - As dozens of unpredictable bushfires break out in Australia's extreme heat, military-style operations are in full swing at a "nerve centre" that harnesses state-of-the-art technology allied to the power of social media.At the state operations room at the western Sydney headquarters of the RFS, fire officials sit alongside representatives from the police, the Department of Defence, utilities and state bodies to coordinate the fire response.Before them is a giant digital video wall, the largest in the southern hemisphere, displaying information about all fires burning in the state, including maps, number of firefighters at the front and weather forecasts. "This is the nerve centre for all the fires that are going on in New South Wales at the moment," media spokeswoman Brydie O'Connor told AFP.

All information -- including fire behaviour analysis, air resources, number of fire trucks available, streets and homes that might come under threat -- is plugged into an online system and is immediately available to all who need it.
The centre itself is disaster-proofed, with custom designs ensuring "if there is a major power outage or some sort of catastrophic event in NSW that electricity would still run in this building", O'Connor said.

Everyone is in one room, fire, police, ambulance, armed forces, air transport, RFS.....need to know what transport is needed for an area? He's sitting over there. Need to know what Army units may be available? He's to your right. One single, consolidated team, all areas covered with full command and control. Need an Air Force helicopter? See the woman over to the left. All you have to do is ask her.

This is how we plan, this is how we work, this is what years of planning and preparation have accomplished.

EVERY resource NSW can muster - including possibly the military - is being sent to fight the Blue Mountains bushfires, as fears grow that a mega-fire could form. While there are 56 fires still active across the state on Monday - 12 uncontained - the focus is the large State Mine fire near Lithgow.Residents in the township of Bell were this morning again urged to evacuate ahead of temperatures in the mid-30s, low humidity and problematic winds around 25km/h. The great concern in the region west of Sydney is the chance of a mega-fire forming in worsening conditions on Wednesday.

Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons concedes it's a possibility."I don't think I've ever use the word mega-fire," he said."But the reality is that the modelling indicates that there's every likelihood that in the forecast weather conditions that these two fires, particularly up in the back end of the mountains, will merge at some point.'' The Lithgow fire could burn along the Bells Line of Road, threatening communities in Sydney's northwest from Kurrajong to Richmond. It may be that some communities "will be simply unsaveable", Mr Fitzsimmons said.

As someone who has been through two awful fires here in the last decade, I have deep sympathy. Also, what does it mean when an 11-year-old is helping the police with their inquiries? Do they think kids set off the blaze?

5pm: A 15-year-old boy has been arrested over the large bushfire that started in Heatherbrae last week. He’s currently at Raymond Terrace Police Station where he is expected to be charged.

3.10pm: The 11-year-old boy has been charged and has been refused bail.

1.11pm: An 11-year-old boy is expected to be charged with intentionally causing a fire and allowing it to spread after police linked him to the Heatherbrae bushfire today. Police are alleging the boy lit the fire at Heatherbrae on October 13, which engulfed more than 5000 hectares of land in Heatherbrae, Tomago, Williamtown, southern Raymond Terrace and Medowie.

They have also linked him to another fire at Raymond Terrace. Police arrested the suspect this morning and he is now being interviewed. This is the second arrest in less than 24 hours after a 14-year-old Rutherford boy was arrested yesterday for lighting a fire near Rutherford Tennis Club. The fire burnt 200 square metres of land around the club and spread to a fence and 20 trees.

"Overnight, fire fighters deliberately merged the 44,000 hectare State Mine fire in Lithgow with a smaller 2,000 hectare blaze at Mt Victoria in a pre-emptive strike to prevent those two fronts from joining up with a 3,000 hectare fire in Springwood. By merging the State Mine and Mt Victoria fires, the RFS has capitalised on better weather conditions to create a single fireground they can easily predict, University of Newcastle lecturer Mr Martin Babakhan says.

"When there's erratic fire behaviour, that's going to be a disaster," he told AAP."But when fire behaviour is predictable, they understand how that fire works." In the absence of high winds or dry conditions, the fires can be more easily contained and back-burned once joined. Another major benefit is improved communications between the RFS headquarters and those at the front, he added. "The top level people guiding the firefighters at the frontline now know what's going on," he said. "They know how the fire's developing."